Media Kit: Press Releases

NINECO INTRODUCES FIRST E-MERCIAL: New Technology Adapts TV Commercial Programming for the Internet

BOSTON, MA - January 18, 1999 - nineCo, the premier online database marketing company, today introduced the first e-mercial. Like TV commercials, e-mercials are full-screen advertisements shown during breaks in programming - the award-winning, massively-multiplayer Web game shows on nineCo's popular Gamesville.com site. Using its database of over 1.2 million registered Gamesville.com players, nineCo offers sponsors the ability to precisely target consumers and consumer groups, increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of campaigns. nineCo's extensive, fast-growing database of users - each of whom have given permission for their profiles to be used - allows the company to target specific individuals in realtime, based on hundreds of factors including gender, income, profession and geographic location by zip code. Plus, nineCo customizes the technologic complexity of the ads (and the entire Gamesville.com experience) to suit each player's specific computer equipment (browser, operating system, etc.,) allowing for seamless delivery of all "rich media" formats, including streaming video and audio and pre-populated interactive e-commerce opportunities, entry forms and enrollments.

The e-mercial is an entirely new form of 1:1 targeted, interstitial Web advertising which shows individual viewers full-screen, long-form advertisements their profile indicates may interest them. In much the same way television capitalizes on viewers acceptance of commercial breaks in shows, the e-mercial capitalizes on Gamesville.com players willingness to view ads between the site's regularly scheduled game shows - which start every ten minutes, but are designed to last eight minutes maximum, creating mandatory "Intermissions" between game shows of two minutes minimum duration. By creating this TV-style programming for the Web, nineCo's e-mercial allows Internet marketers opportunities to target eager eyeballs with large-format, immersive messages for extended periods of time - a considerably more effective, efficient, creative vehicle than the current standard Web ad format, the tiny "banner" ad which appears on screen for a scant few seconds.

Originally launched in April 1996 as BingoZone.com, Gamesville.com contains easy-to-play, massively-multiplayer, interactive game shows in which cash and merchandise prizes are continuously awarded to winners - currently more than 14,000 prizes per month (including $1000 cash prizes and all-expense paid vacations!) Simply by filling out a short site-registration form, people are immediately able to win prizes by beating fellow Web game show players in one of 578 continuously running games per day. The anticipation of winning prizes entices users to provide accurate information about themselves (to ensure Gamesville.com winnings are sent to the correct person and address) and to continuously update their profiles - every month many thousands of players provide the site with address changes!

"In the past, advertisers have taken a buck-shot approach - strewing miniscule banner ads across numerous Web sites in the hope that someone in their target group will notice the tiny call-to-action and decide to abandon what they're doing and visit the sponsor's real ad - their web site," said Steven N. Kane, president of nineCo. "We're moving marketers away from this expensive, inefficient, scattershot approach to a previously unavailable, immediate, focused and measurable method of Web advertising, the e-mercial. Our interstitially-programmed Gamesville.com game shows and e-mercials create a mutually-friendly immersive environment in which consumers and marketers are happy to be together - a high-traffic, full-screen, rich media, long duration environment, enhanced with the specific targeting made possible by our large, deep database of people who have given permission for themselves to be targeted."

The e-mercial joins nineCo's existing targeted online advertising offerings which include:

• Online Event Sponsorships - Like sports and event marketing, ads and logos are incorporated directly into activities and interfaces, providing a continuous co-branding presence for the advertiser.
• Sponsored e-mail content - nineCo's Gamesville Times bi-weekly e-mail publication is received by more than 750,000 subscribers. Ads in the html and text-based e-mail publication are targeted according to registered profiles.
• Direct e-mail - More than 525,000 Gamesville registrants have given permission for nineCo to send them "special offers based on their interests" from Gamesville.com sponsors.
• Pop-up windows - Small windows that "pop-up" during games to expose customized advertisements to targeted users.
• Micro-Targeted Banners - Internet banner ads and buttons, etc., that are targeted to specific groups of consumers based on individual profiles.

About nineCo, Inc.
Founded with the mission of becoming the premier Internet database marketing company, nineCo (no inventory, no employees, cash only) offers advertisers the largest and most diverse demographic database on the Internet with a private database of over 1.2 million users growing at 60,000 new registered users per month. The site's "opt-in" registration allows nineCo to accurately target all advertising and interfaces according to specific individual demographic, geographic and psychographic profiles.